Cortez driver pleads guilty to causing deaths

A Cortez woman charged with killing two people on a motorcycle while driving drunk has pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular homicide in District Court.

Stacie Pierce-Green, 41, faces up to 16 years in prison after signing a plea agreement with the 6th Judicial District Attorney's Office.

Sentencing is set for 2:30 p.m. April 5.

She was scheduled to face trial next month.

Green was driving a green Mercury Tracer westbound on U.S. Highway 160, a few miles west of Hesperus, when she crept over the center line by a couple of feet and sideswiped an oncoming motorcycle, killing two riders - Frank Steward, 66, and Jessica Steward, 65, of Tahoe Vista, Calif.

The 2011 Harley-Davidson motorcycle was traveling eastbound close to the double-yellow line at the time of impact, but the Colorado State Patrol said the motorcycle was in its own lane.

The crash occurred about 4:45 p.m. May 22, 2012.

Pierce-Green told troopers she drank four Bud Light beers and smoked marijuana, but she denied causing the accident.

Pierce-Green has a prior criminal record.

She pleaded guilty Nov. 30, 2007, to felony assault with a deadly weapon in the heat of passion. She was on probation at the time of the accident, and therefore was facing up to 24 years in prison on each count of vehicular homicide.